The Dungeon

After the tragic deaths of his wife and children, Bruce MacLennan travels to China and becomes a hired fighter. There he takes a young Chinese girl as his slave and she helps him begin to heal from his grief.

Long Synopsis:

In the aftermath of a murderous savagery between two rival Scottish lairds, Bruce McLennan commands the building of a castle with a dungeon below. During its building, he travels to the far away, and then almost unknown land of China, where he joins a troop of mercenary soldiers-all to distract him from his memories. In a poor tea-house, he encounters the child Peony, and, on impulse, buys her to be his attendant. Despite his harshness toward her, she serves him faithfully. After many adventures, they return to Scotland, where McLennan s castle-and his planned revenge-await him. Within these dark walls, Peony finds a new life and unexpected happiness. For McLennan the time has come to fill the dungeon with its destined prisoner. But he does not dream of the terrible twist of fate, that will make him lock away his old enemy but the most precious person in his life. Celebrated author Lynne Reid Banks takes us back to the fourteenth century in this compelling epic of one lord s bitterstruggle, his quest for vengeance, and the tragic awakening of his frozen heart.